Project Description

Huile sur toile + frame

Dimensions : 46 cm x 54 cm

Signed lower right : Albert lock

View of the rock of St Michel d'Aiguilhe Puy en Velay

Albert lock

Artist Lille painter who lived in the Wicar Workshop 1938/1939.

L’Wicar workshop is a welcoming place for artists in residence Italy, in the town of Rome. Winners receive an annual grant paid by the foundation for four years.

Rome

Everything seems to be arranged and the competition for the recruitment of a Wicar scholarship holder, peintre, quickly mounted : it should open on 13 December 1937. The winner is Albert Lock. This one arrives at the beginning of January and takes over from Esther Rogeau. He expresses his gratitude in a letter to the President of the Society : it is well installed, despite the dated appearance of the apartment, above all he is amazed by Rome.

Albert Lock announces its engagement with a young lady Vuillemain…niece of Cardinal Tisserant (1884-1972). L’Eminence, known for its sharp character, is one of the authorities of the Sacred College, as Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Church. The behavior of the pious French establishments and their administrator changes completely as soon as they learn that Albert Serrure and Fernand Beaucamp enjoy cardinal protection.

We are in full Italian comedy : the scholarship is paid without any problem at the rate initially planned, the travel expenses of the resident recalled to France by the August mobilization 1938 are spontaneously reimbursed, of the redevelopment work of the apartment implemented “not out of sympathy, writes with humor the young painter, but the silhouette of His Excellency the Cardinal has produced appreciable effects».

Le Puy-en-Velay

The boarder, married in Zion (in Lorraine) the 11 avril 1939, work with great enthusiasm. An exhibition of his Roman works is organized in Lille shortly after the ceremony. The merits of the artist have been recognized by a prize from the Society of Sciences and Arts (Blondeau Prize).

Everything would be fine if it weren't for the international events and the mobilization of 1939 which puts a definitive end to the stay in Rome of the thirtieth beneficiary of the scholarships of the work Pie Wicar. The archives of the Society contain the duplicate of the letter that the assistant secretary Pierre Maurois (curator of the palace of fine arts) address it 4 avril 1941 to the mayor of Lille to draw his attention to Albert's predicament Lock demobilized and taken refuge in Le Puy-en-Velay, with his wife who is expecting their second child. He was able to send a little help. Could the town hall of Lille not send him the sum corresponding to the Roman scholarship that he should have received? ?

The work Pie wicar

Another landscape work is proposed.